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Shift work not a risk to your heart, study says
From The Heart and Stroke Foundation
People who perform shift work do not appear to face any additional risk of death from heart disease than people who work regular office hours, a recent study in the journal of Occupational Environmental Medicine shows.
Shift workers often have erratic schedules, which tend to affect their sleep patterns, eating behaviour and social interactions -- factors that have been linked to heart problems. Researchers set out to determine whether or not shift workers are more likely to die from heart disease than those who work regular hours.
Researchers looked at the work histories of 635 males who died of heart disease. The subjects were 50 years or younger during follow-up years (1950-1998), and employed at a nuclear fuel producing and reprocessing site, either as regular daytime hour workers or as shift workers.
The researchers of this study found that the inconsistent schedules of shift workers did not place them at a significantly higher risk of death from heart disease when compared to people who worked regular day shifts.
The researchers did find, however, that social class influenced heart disease risk. When social class was included in the analysis, those doing shift work had an 11% excess risk of death from heart disease, but when social class was left out, risk of death was reduced to 4%.
So, although shift work alone poses little to no additional risk of death from heart disease, the researchers were able to show that social class may indeed, impact a worker’s risk of death from heart disease.
Curious if you are at risk of heart disease? Take the Heart&Stroke Risk Assessment.
Posted: April 7, 2008
Source: Yadegarfar and McNamee. Shift work, confounding and death from ischaemic heart disease. Occup Environ Med.2008; 65: 158-163
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